Ex VP BMW Product Development Talks On Development Process, M, Turbos, Competition

[ciomas]

Seems like you had a great chat. Good stuff, thanks for this

[ORIGIN M.]

It's unreal how effective it is, considering how little extra power is need to accentuate any given maneuver/turn.

Originally Posted by Park2670

Read the fine print of the SH-AWD that Acura sells. It can transfer "100%" of the available torque to either rear wheel. But in all reality it can only put 40% of the torque to the rear axle, thus only 40% of the torque is pushed to an outside rear wheel.

[ORIGIN M.]

Yeah I spit coffee everywhere on that one.

However, I did truly enjoy the read, so thanks the OP for posting!

Originally Posted by Dackelone

Thanks for sharring with us.

I really have to chuckle... "Little known fact: BMW sells more xDrive cars than Audi sells Quattro"!

[seetully]

Definitely an interesting read man thanks for the info!

[michal12]

Wow - thousands of test kilometers in hot and cold climate plus Nordschleife cannot simulate one idiot behind the wheel who manages to distress the car within 20mins...

[Dackelone]

Originally Posted by michal12

Wow - thousands of test kilometers in hot and cold climate plus Nordschleife cannot simulate one idiot behind the wheel who manages to distress the car within 20mins...

I remember years ago when reading about how Porsche did the R&D for Harley Davidson's new V-Rod. HD first watercooled bike. Since Porsche had extensive knowledge on air and water cooled engines... HD chose Weissach to design thier V-Rod.

Anways... when HD told Porsche they wanted this new water cooled motor bike to idle for over two hours and not move - without over heating Porsche's Weissach Engineer's ask who in thier right mind would start up thier bike and leave it running for over two hours! HD replay was simple: its called a street PARADE in the USA!

So... Germans think logically, not like your average driver/journalist does.

[JulieDriving]

Originally Posted by SamS

Nice, thanks for the detailed write-up and easy read. I appreciate you sharing.

+ 1, thanks OP.

[SchnellM3]

Great Article

[Rickster311]

I don't understand how BMW sells more cars with xDrive than Audi sells with quattro - when quattro is standard on almost all their cars...?

Cars that are offered with quattro:
TT
TTS
TTRS
R8 v8
R8 v10
R8 GT
A4
S4
A5
S5
RS 5
A6
S6
A7
S7
A8
S8
A4 allroad
Q5
Q7

Only cars they don't sell with standard is the A3..

BMW cars that offer xDrive:
3 series
5 series
7 series
X3
X5


Am I missing something here? Or maybe it's because BMW sold nearly double what Audi did in the US? I just think this fact is misleading. A higher percentage of all Audi's sold have quattro compared to BMW but due to bmw's sales figures, it looks like they sell more xDrive vehicles than Audi..

[Poppin Fresh]

Quite a good read, very interesting indeed.

[Robin_NL]

Gracias por el informacion. Very interesting.

[Robin_NL]

Originally Posted by Rickster311

I don't understand how BMW sells more cars with xDrive than Audi sells with quattro - when quattro is standard on almost all their cars...?

Cars that are offered with quattro:
TT
TTS
TTRS
R8 v8
R8 v10
R8 GT
A4
S4
A5
S5
RS 5
A6
S6
A7
S7
A8
S8
A4 allroad
Q5
Q7

Only cars they don't sell with standard is the A3..

BMW cars that offer xDrive:
3 series
5 series
7 series
X3
X5


Am I missing something here? Or maybe it's because BMW sold nearly double what Audi did in the US? I just think this fact is misleading. A higher percentage of all Audi's sold have quattro compared to BMW but due to bmw's sales figures, it looks like they sell more xDrive vehicles than Audi..

Here in my country/EU in general, the Audis I see(A3/4/6) are 80% or more NON quattro. Just 4 cylinder/ TDIs bread and butter models , not big engined cars. May that's why? Off course the A8/S/R8 have quattro obviously. But the market in general consists of (non quattro) A3/4/5/6 imho.

[BMW M Power Mexico]

Originally Posted by Robin Hood

Here in my country/EU in general, the Audis I see(A3/4/6) are 80% or more NON quattro. Just 4 cylinder/ TDIs bread and butter models , not big engined cars. May that's why? Off course the A8/S/R8 have quattro obviously. But the market in general consists of (non quattro) A3/4/5/6 imho.

Same here, easily 95% of Audis on the road are FWD VW-based cars. Just the number of X5/3/1 that I see on the road easily outnumber all Audi Quattros combined. And this in a country where BMW doesn´t even offer x-drive in anything other than the X series.

[richb811]

Good stuff! Thanks for sharing!

[Nandrega]

Originally Posted by Robin Hood

Here in my country/EU in general, the Audis I see(A3/4/6) are 80% or more NON quattro. Just 4 cylinder/ TDIs bread and butter models , not big engined cars. May that's why? Off course the A8/S/R8 have quattro obviously. But the market in general consists of (non quattro) A3/4/5/6 imho.

If the market in general is mostly FWD cars, wouldn't it stand to reason that EU is not where BMW is making up the ground on awd cars? Because surely they can't sell more xdrive in the US that Audi sells quattro in the US..

[justinnum1]

interesting

[Headgrunt]

Good read......